(Redirected from Cognitive)
The term cognition is used in several different loosely
related ways. In
psychology it is used to refer to the
mental processes of an individual, with particular relation to a view that
argues that the mind has internal mental states (such as
beliefs,
desires and intentions) and can be understood in terms of
information processing, especially when a lot of abstraction or
concretization is involved, or processes such as involving knowledge,
expertise or learning for example are at work. It is also used in a wider
sense to mean the act of knowing or
knowledge,
and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the
emergent
development of knowledge and concepts within a group.
Cognition in mainstream psychology
The sort of mental processes described as cognitive or
cognitive processes are largely influenced by research which
has successfully used this paradigm in the past. Consequently this description
tends to apply to processes such as
memory,
attention,
perception,
action,
problem solving and
mental imagery. Traditionally
emotion was
not thought of as a cognitive process. This division is now regarded as
largely artificial, and much research is currently being undertaken to examine
the
cognitive psychology of emotion.
Empirical research into cognition is usually
scientific and
quantitative, or involves creating models to describe or explain certain
behaviours.
Whilst few people would deny that cognitive processes are the
responsibility of the
brain, a
cognitive theory will not necessarily make any reference to the brain or any
other biological process (compare
neurocognitive). It may purely describe behaviour in terms of information
flow or function. Relatively recent fields of study such as
cognitive science and
neuropsychology aim to bridge this gap, using cognitive paradigms to
understand how the brain implements these information processing functions
(see also
cognitive neuroscience), or how pure information processing systems (e.g.
computers) can simulate cognition (see also
artificial intelligence). The branch of psychology which studies brain
injury to infer normal cognitive function is called
cognitive neuropsychology. The links of cognition to
evolutionary demands are studied through the investigation of
animal cognition.
The theoretical school of thought derived from the cognitive approach is
often called
cognitivism.
The phenomenal success of the cognitive approach can be seen by its current
dominance as the core model in contemporary
psychology (usurping
behaviorism in the late
1950s).
Influence and influences
This success has led to it being applied in a wide range of areas:
In its widest sense, the field is quite eclectic and draws from a number of
areas, such as:
Cognitive ontology
On an individual being level, these questions are studied by the separate
fields above, but are also more integrated into
cognitive ontology of various kinds. This challenges the older
linguistically-dependent views of
ontology,
wherein one could debate being, perceiving, and doing, with no cognizance of
innate human limits, varying human lifeways, and loyalties that may let a
being "know" something (see
qualia) that
for others remains very much in
doubt.
On the level of an individual mind, an
emergent
behavior might be the formation of a new concept, 'bubbling up' from below
the conscious level of the mind. A simple way of stating this is that beings
preserve their own
attention
and are at every level concerned with avoiding
interruption and distraction. Such
cognitive specialization can be observed in particular in language, with
adults markedly less able to hear or say distinctions made in languages to
which they were not exposed in youth.
Cognition as compression
By the 1980s,
researchers in the Engineering departments of the
University of Leeds,
UK hypothesized that 'Cognition is a form of
compression', i.e., cognition was an
economic,
not just a
philosophical or a
psychological process; in other words, skill in the process of cognition
confers a
competitive advantage. An implication of this view is that choices about
what to cognize are being made at all levels from the neurological expression
up to species-wide priority setting; in other words, the compression process
is a form of optimization. This is a force for
self-organizing behavior; thus we have the opportunity to see samples of
emergent
behavior at each successive level, from individual, to groups of
individuals, to formal organizations, to societies.
Cognition as a social process
In multiple
observations, some dating back to antiquity,
language acquisition in human children, fails to emerge unless the
children are spoken to. Thus 'language acquisition' is an example of an
'emergent behavior', which in fact requires a group. In this case, the
individuals form
coalitions
in order to enable the emergent behavior.
In
education, for instance, which has the explicit task in
society of
developing child cognition, choices are made regarding the
environment and permitted
action that lead to a formed
experience. This is in turn affected by the
risk or
cost of providing
these, for instance, those associated with a
playground or
swimming pool or
field trip. The macro-choices made by the
political economy in effect will be extremely influential on the
micro-choices made by the teachers or children. So at least on this level,
there is obvious feedback between the economic choice and the psychology of
the activity, and philosophy of rationalizations proposed.
In
social cognition,
face perception in human babies emerges by the age of two months.
Cognition in a cultural context
One famous image taken during the first Apollo mission to the Moon,
Earthrise, which shows planet Earth in a single photograph, is now the
icon for
Earth Day, which did not arise until after the image became widespread. At
this level, an example of an 'emergent behavior' might be concern for
'Spaceship Earth', as encouraged by the development of orbiting
space observatories etc.
Other concepts which seem to have arisen only recently (in the last
century) include increased expectations for
human
rights. In this case, an example of an 'emergent behavior' might perhaps
be the use of the
mass
media to publicize inequities in the
human condition, perhaps using highly portable cameras and telephones.
Summary
Cognition is a diffuse term and is used in radically different ways by
different disciplines. In psychology, it refers to an information processing
view of an individual's psychological functions. Wider interpretations of the
meaning of cognition link it to the development of concepts. Individual minds,
groups, organizations, and even larger
coalitions
can be modelled as
societies which cooperate to form concepts. The autonomous elements of
each 'society' would have the opportunity to demonstrate
emergent
behavior.
See also
